I wring my hands when I see beautiful old buildings torn down, but try to check my romanticism about “slow development”. I'm not much of a capitalist or a consumer, but that's really no excuse for criticizing other who think otherwise.Nonetheless, I haven’t met anyone really enamored by the progress here in Vientiane. Thanks to a Singaporean consortium, the old morning market will soon be walls of curved glass. Last night my friend Tee trashed it. “Why tear something down that’s only 15 years old. How long will this new one last before it’s torn down? It’s not like our country has money to burn.”
He told me about irrigation systems. Most of them have been built around the capital city, but farmers around Vientiane have found they can make more money selling their land than tilling it. People then buy the property, fill in the fields and build houses. Now the system irrigates housing projects. Rural areas are still stuck with one crop a year if they’re lucky.
He said that we have to remember that everything has a limit. It’s just a matter of time before everything will be used up. I thought he was talking about ethics and asked if it came from Buddhism. He said, “Are you kidding? It’s a fact of life!”
He’s one of several young talented and dispirited men I have met recently. Last night I talked to someone who works at the Ministry of Industrial Development. He said he is busy and bored. He didn’t mince his words when talking about c****ption.
He asked what my research is about. Hell if I can say “metacognitive functions” in Lao. It came out sounding like I was researching creative thinking among rural kids. He said, “You have to feed them first. You have to take care of their health.”
He complained of the lack of coordination among development agencies. “They send medicine to be stored in refrigerators that don’t work. In the end, it gets thrown out. He said it’s the same problem with everything. They get new machines, but no spare parts, new technologies, but no technicians so everything ends up in the dump pile. He was quite agitated at this point.
I mentioned that I had noticed stress on people’s faces. He misunderstood me, thinking I was saying how everyone looked so “sabai” and laid back since that’s how Laos is marketed. “Don’t be deceived by the surface”, he says. “Underneath, lots of people are distressed.”
It makes sense. Coffee goes from 2 to 3,000 kip. Noodles up to 10,000. That’s a big jump when wages stay at 300,000 kip a month. If you drink coffee every morning, that’s 10% less of your wage. New roads and shopping centers and gigantic SUV’s on the road. I just figured it was a sign of prosperity. Well, not really. I could see it on the faces.
This guy said that 7% of the urban population is profiting from doing some kind of private business, but the rest will have to do without coffee. He said most families get by because they stick together. His older brother is in LA working and sending money. Older brother complains because it’s not any easier on that side either.
Bee said that as a part of development, Laos needs to feed its people, develop human resources and improve services. Services generally mean services for tourists. Bee says that Thai people know how to serve tourists. She says that they know how to smile all the time and Lao people should do the same. Dee disagrees. He says it’s not necessary for people to learn how to smile insincerely.
